2009: It is 70 years since the beginning of World War II. After the war was over, many thousands of people would never see again. Martin Roemers photographed and interviewed two dozen of those who lost their sight as a result of the conflict.

"'Bombs, bombs, bombs, on Rosie's head!' My mother said that I was singing that one hour before the Dortmund air-raid sirens went off."
Rosemarie Pinnau (born Germany, 1938)

2009: It is 70 years since the beginning of World War II. After the war was over, many thousands of people would never see again. Martin Roemers photographed and interviewed two dozen of those who lost their sight as a result of the conflict.

"'Bombs, bombs, bombs, on Rosie's head!' My mother said that I was singing that one hour before the Dortmund air-raid sirens went off."
Rosemarie Pinnau (born Germany, 1938)

"I remember a bright flash. Five weeks later I woke up in a hospital. I was as good as blind and both my legs were broken."
Eric Church (born UK, 1924)

"I was assigned to a sewing workshop and had to repair uniforms. I sat by the window when a Russian plane came. I still remember that it sounded like a sewing machine."
Gerda Degenhardt (born Germany, 1926)

"Do you know what I would like? To be able to see my children for a minute or even a second."
Elena Griczienko (German, born USSR, 1939)« less